


And Still Insists He Sees The Ghosts.

by PieOfEpicness



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: F/M, Ghosts, M/M, Post-Film, Read at Your Own Risk, Sad times, The Losers have The Shining, but not ghosts?, gay love piercing the veil, lots of talk about Eddie's corpse, references to book and film canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 22:04:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21309361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PieOfEpicness/pseuds/PieOfEpicness
Summary: Two years after defeating It, Richie asks the rest of the Losers to help him retrieve Eddie.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 79
Collections: It Faves





	And Still Insists He Sees The Ghosts.

Two years.

Two years since returning to Derry.

Two years since recovering those memories.

Two years since they’d killed Pennywise.

Two years since Eddie had died.

Two. Fucking. Years.

And Richie still hears the sound of Eddie being stabbed. He still sees Eddie being thrown down the shaft. He still feels Eddie’s clammy skin on his fingertips. He still smells Eddie’s blood.

He still feels regret for not saying anything. 

Grief is painful, the regret is painful, breathing is painful, remembering is _painful_. He wishes he could forget again, just go back to not remembering. Richie wishes for a lot of things, but mostly he wishes for Eddie’s ghost to stop haunting him.

He starts seeing him after Stan’s funeral, about a week after killing It. He’s trying to get to sleep in the super comfy hotel bed, the lights are off, and he can barely see, but there was definitely someone in the corner. Richie’s tired and his eyes hurt from crying, but he’s quick to grab his glasses. He’s silent, mouth open in shock as Eddie looks blankly across the room.

Richie manages to break eye contact to turn on the lamp, and then Eddie is gone. He starts crying again, and he sends a text to Beverly, who’s in a nearby room with Ben. She comes over, doesn’t ask any questions, just slips into the bed beside him and holds him tight. He cries into her chest and she lets him, stroking his hair in a soothing pattern.

Some of the tears are for Stan, but they’re mostly for Eddie. If Bev knows, she doesn’t say anything. As he starts falling asleep, he has a few vague thoughts about turning over, making it more comfortable for Bev, but she just kisses the top of his head, and hugs him tighter.

When he wakes up, actually feeling rested for the first time in a long time, Richie can tell she’s already been awake for a while. As he’s waking, he feels her still stroking his hair. When he starts lifting his head to say sorry, he sees her looking into the corner where Eddie was last night.

Eddie’s not there now, and he briefly considers asking Bev if she saw him, too, but he doesn’t. After he finally releases her, she stretches, and gets out the bed, saying she wants to get some breakfast with Ben. She invites Richie along, but he’s not hungry yet. She gives him a kiss on the cheek before she leaves. 

Ben comes to see Richie before he and Bev leave. They hug each other in the doorway, and when Richie breaks away, he sees Ben staring into the corner. Richie turns, but there’s nothing there, and then he turns back to Ben, who’s looking a little shaken. Richie wants to ask, but again, he doesn’t, and they just say goodbye.

Richie meets with Bill and Mike at the airport for an early dinner before their flights. Bill is going home to Audra, to spend some quality time with just her after the trauma they all suffered in Derry. Mike is finally heading to Florida, and he sounds pretty excited about his lack of plans once he gets there.

They all go to hit the head, Richie using the urinal in the middle. He notices the light behind him is flickering a bit, but he doesn’t give it much thought. He does notice that Bill and Mike both glance behind them, and he sees them stiffening in his peripheral vision. No one says a word, but once they’re all done and about to head to their gates, Bill and Mike share a look. 

They give each other tight hugs, and promise to call each other soon.

Richie manages to keep it together on the plane. He asks for a few too many hot towels, and asks his manager to cancel the next few weeks of shows. When he’s pushed for information, he’s as truthful as he can be: he lost two friends, one to suicide and one in a freak accident. It shuts his manager up for a while.

As soon as he locks his front door, he loses it. Richie crumbles to the floor, and he cries his eyes out for the umpteenth time that week.

Richie mostly sees him at night, when he’s trying to sleep. Eddie stands by the window, looking out onto the still busy LA street below. Richie at first thinks he’s dreaming, rolling away from the window, only to see Eddie’s reflection in the mirror. He shuts his eyes, only to re-watch Eddie being stabbed. Richie starts drinking to get to sleep. 

But then he starts seeing Eddie during the day, and Richie starts wondering if he’s hallucinating. He sees him standing on the street, sometimes just sitting on his couch.

Richie tries talking to him, but Eddie doesn’t seem to know that he’s there. Richie shouts, but all he gets is a few noise complaints from his neighbours. He tries touching Eddie, but it feels like there’s an invisible barrier surrounding him. Richie tries confessing to Eddie, tries to get any sort of reaction from him, but Eddie just stands there, face blank and body still.

Richie cries a lot, he starts begging Eddie to tell him what he wants. He stops answering calls from his manager, just sends them the occasional text to reassure them that he’s still alive. The only things he finds himself looking forward to are the weekly Skype calls with the Losers. 

He doesn’t tell any of them what he’s been seeing.

Soon he just waits for Eddie to appear.

*~.~*

Richie gets back into the game after a month. He starts doing shows again, even gets a Netflix special. He’s talking regularly with the other Losers, having a group Skype call every week. Now that they can still remember each other, they’re determined not to let each other fade out.

Mike loved Florida, and has been making plans to visit Mexico. Bill finally learned how to write endings after finally getting the ending they all needed from It. Ben and Bev are still on their road trip, with plans to visit Richie soon when they go through California. He’s excited, already thinking of all the shitty bars they can visit.

Richie doesn’t tell that he can see Eddie. 

Doesn’t say that he sees him when Richie is just walking down the street, and it looks like Eddie could be doing some window shopping. Doesn’t say he sees him in the front row of his shows sometimes. It threw him a little off balance the first time it happened, but he managed to plow through.

Doesn’t say that he’s been drinking most nights just so Richie doesn’t dream.

He knows he can reach out to his friends, but he just… doesn’t. They support each other, they go to book launches with Bill, to Bev’s showcases, to Ben’s openings, to his own shows, as well as spend a few nights in whatever city Mike has ended up in for the month.

Richie knows the moment he says something they’ll be there, but he just doesn’t.

And then it’s been two years.

Richie noticed within a few weeks that Eddie’s appearance started to change. Eddie started to mummify, and it terrified him, because who wants to see someone they love like that? Richie starts feeling a compulsion when he realises what’s happening to Eddie: he _needs_ to back down to him, he _needs_ to bring him back, to put Eddie to rest properly, because it’s clear neither of them can ever be at rest if Eddie stays down there.

*~.~*

When Bev announces that she and Ben will be stopping in LA in few days on their next road trip while on their weekly Skype call, Richie is absently staring across the room. Eddie’s eyes have sunken, his skin like leather, hair like cotton blowing in an absent wind. 

Richie sighs, and invites Ben and Bev to stay with him.

*~.~*

Soon, Bev and Ben arrive on his doorstep. Bev hugs Richie hard, and it feels like she doesn’t let go for at least a minute.

“I missed you,” she says.

Richie smiles for the first time in a while. It hurts, but he keeps doing it. “I missed you, too. Ben, get in here, already!”

Ben puts down their bags, and engulfs the both of them, and Richie actually feels somewhat happy for the first time in a long while.

They have fun. The three of them hang out, see the sights, find cute little café’s that have shitty coffee, and go to the shitty dive bars. Bev and Ben even do some food shopping and cook dinner together. It’s nice.

Richie doesn’t see Eddie during the day.

*~.~*

On the last night of Ben and Bev’s stay, Richie’s woken up by Bev sitting down beside him. She looks down at him sadly, a mug of tea in one hand and the other on his forearm, and then she looks over to the window, where Eddie is standing.

“You see him too?” He asks weakly.

“Yeah,” she says. “I saw him after Stan’s funeral. He’s… changed.”

“Practically mummified,” Ben says from the doorway.

“I tried talking to him, but he never responds,” Richie tells them.

Ben walks over to Eddie, and tries to touch him, but meets the same invisible barrier that Richie did. Bev watches the interaction with curiosity, but all Richie wants to do is roll over and go back to sleep.

“How long have you been seeing him?” Bev asks gently.

Richie hesitates before answering. “Since Stan’s funeral,” he says quietly. 

Bev doesn’t say anything, but her face says it all. She looks like she’s about to cry at the realisation. Ben comes over, and takes the mug so she can climb into bed beside him. Richie appreciates her closeness as she wraps her arms around him.

“Do you think he’s a ghost?” Ben asks.

“I don’t think so,” Bev finally says.

“What else could he be?” Ben replies. “It’s not like he’s actually here.”

“Yeah, he’s just stuck in a cave for all of fucking eternity,” Richie says, and that really fucking hurts, and he lets out a sob. Beverly starts stroking his hair, just like she did after Stan’s funeral. And then Ben is there, too, climbing in on the other side of the bed, and Richie almost feels too warm, but he doesn’t want either of them to move. 

“Do you remember when we first injured It? How, afterwards, we couldn’t find our way out of those sewers? It was just a maze, none of us could seem to remember the way back to the Well House,” Bev says.

“Yeah, I remember. And then we had that fucking sewer orgy. Just a shame Eddie’s mom wasn’t there, right Eds?” Richie hears a _beep beep_ in his head, and he gets a small laugh from Ben and Bev.

“It wasn’t an orgy,” Bev says. “I just realised that we weren’t being let out yet, because we couldn’t leave the same way we came. We had to shed every last bit of our childhoods before we could leave.”  
  
“Hence the sewer orgy.”  
  
“Hence the sewer orgy,” Bev secedes with an eye roll. “So, I found the only dry patch I could, and…well, you both remember the rest.”  
  
“And we were truly men after that, weren’t we Ben?” Richie holds up his hand for a high five, which Ben gives. “You were the only girl for me, Bev. On that day, I realised just how fucking _gay _I am. One and done for me. No offense, Bev.”

“None taken, but my point _is_,” Bev says, redirecting back, “is that after I did that, we were able to find the way out, and we were… connected. Whatever you want to call it, you can’t deny that before we all moved away and forgot, we could sense things about each other, feel things the others were feeling.”  
  
Richie and Ben nods their heads as they remember.

“Maybe we can see him because of our connection?” Bev suggests.

“But why can’t we see Stan?” Ben asks.

“I don’t know. I think, maybe, despite the painful way he went, he was found. He was able to be buried. Put to rest,” Bev says.

“Meanwhile, Eddie has mummified in a cave, and is trapped for all fucking eternity,” Richie concludes sadly. “Did he even get a funeral?”

“Myra had a memorial service the week after Stan. She didn’t feel comfortable inviting people she didn’t know.” 

It’s like Pennywise has risen from his grave and stabbed Richie through the heart as well. He sees Ben wince, and he thinks Bev must have as well.

“But we were his best friends!” Ben said, incredulous. 

“I know,” Bev replies, tears in her voice.

Richie feels Ben and Beverly connect their arms over him, and it’s comforting, but it doesn’t help to shake a particular thought from his mind.

“I don’t want to keep seeing him for the rest of my life,” he says. “I need to go back down there. Bring him back.” He knows they must be looking at each other, can just about hear their private conversation. 

“Richie, you know we’ll support you, and we’ll of course do whatever we can to help you do what you need to do, but I think I also need to be a voice of reason here. If any part of that cave is still standing, there’s no way of knowing if we can even get in there,” Bev says.

“There’s also the fact that it’ll be incredibly unsafe if we can even get in there. There’s no knowing how structurally sound that place is,” Ben points out. “There were multiple ways into the sewer, the Well House was just the easiest.”

“There’s no knowing what we’ll find down there anyway. If there even is anything to bring back.”  
  
“Of course there’s something to bring back! Look at him! He’s a big hunk of jerky, sure, but it’s better than nothing. He needs to be put to rest.”  
  
Another silent conversation between Bev and Ben. Richie’s phone lights up on the bedside table, a few messages coming through. Beverly hands it to Richie, who rolls over to look at it.

“We’ll help you, Richie,” she promises.

Two messages from Mike and Bill. Maybe Bev’s theory on their connection was right.

“Looks like we’re getting the band back together,” Richie says.

At some point, Eddie disappears wherever he disappears to, and Richie finally feels like he can go to sleep. He feels warm and secure, and he’s grateful that two of his best friends are there.

*~.~*

Eddie is back in front of the window when Richie wakes up in the morning. Ben and Bev have since gotten up, he can hear the shower going and smells toast. Richie gets up, and stands beside him.

“Eddie?” He asks.

No response.

“Eds, if you can hear me, I’m coming for you, alright? We all are.”

Richie swears he sees the tiniest flicker of movement in Eddie’s sunken eyes, but he doesn’t allow himself to linger on the thought. He packs up his bag and leaves the room.

*~.~*

Beverly calls Mike and Bill on the way to the airport. While they both express some doubt about what they plan to do, they promise to help. They both saw Eddie, too, but it’s clear that the main hauntee is Richie.

He’s not sure how to feel about it, can’t even think about what that may possibly mean.

*~.~*

Derry hasn’t changed much in the past two years. UberEats has come to town, but that’s about it. They stay in the same haunted Inn that they did before, and Richie somehow gets the room Eddie stayed in. There’s a new shower curtain, but otherwise there’s no evidence that Eddie was ever here.

Sure, hundreds of asses have slept in this bed, Richie realises, but also one of those asses was Eddie. He’s not sure what to think about that as he tries to settle down and sleep. Tomorrow they’ll be figuring out a way down to the cave, and while he’s not exactly excited by the whole expedition, he still feels restless.

Richie must have been sending out some kind of bat signal, as he hears a soft knock on the door, and Bill opens it, slipping inside.

“Hey, Bill,” Richie said, trying to get comfortable on the shitty mattress.

Bill doesn’t respond straight away. He’s looking at Eddie by the window, taken aback by the dried-up husk that used to be his friend. Richie watches for a few moments while Bill walks over to it, but then he rolls away as Bill reaches out.

“Can’t sleep?” Bill finally says.

Richie shakes his head. “You guys taking shifts now to keep me company? I appreciate it, but I’m just wondering when Eddie’s mom is going to join us.”

Bill gives a huff of laughter. “Scoot over,” he says, lifting up the blankets to get in. He nestles himself in behind Richie, throwing an arm over. 

“How does your wife feel about the fact that you spoon with your best friend?” Richie asks teasingly. He does enjoy the closeness though, even holding Bill’s arm in place with his own, interlocking their fingers.

“_One_ of my best friends,” Bill corrects.

Richie gives a dramatic gasp. “How dare you, Bill Denbrough!”

He can hear the smirk from Bill. “And I don’t know, I’ll ask her in the morning.”

“Does she know anything about… what happened here?” Richie asks.

“No. Who could believe something like that happened? So, no. She knew _something_ happened, I came back changed, and with the news that two of my best friends were dead, best friends she had never heard me talk about, by the way. Our marriage nearly ended.”

Richie realises that maybe there was things that even the Losers didn’t share among the Losers. “I’m sorry, man.”

“It’s okay. I don’t think we’ll ever reach true happiness or whatever, since I can’t tell her everything, but it’s close enough.”

Richie ‘hmm’s in response.

After a few minutes of silence: “Goodnight, Richie.”

“G’night, Bill. And thanks,” Richie gets a squeeze in return.

*~.~*

Richie wakes up to a sleepy Bill whispering in his ear, “Good morning Audra,” and then a kiss on a cheek. The lips freeze when they meet the stubble, and Richie freezes along with it, wide awake and feeling awkward as hell.

“Uhhhh…” he manages, not sure what to do.

Bill wakes up properly, sitting up. “Oh. Uh, sorry. I’ll just… go back to my room.”

“It’s fine,” Richie says.

“Still. I’m gonna go. Get dressed,” Bill gets up and heads for the door, leaving with a wave.

*~.~*

Richie stands for a few moments in the bathroom, just looking around. He knows it’s not rational, but he just doesn’t want to use this bathroom. Maybe it’s because the last time he was in it Eddie had just been stabbed through the cheek, maybe it was because that mummified jerky Eddie was currently looking at himself in the mirror. It’s definitely something. 

He waits until Bill has finished in his bathroom.

*~.~*

They meet in Mike’s old loft at the library. He’s got some bags of food from a local diner, along with plans of the sewer system and maps of Derry. Over the next few hours, they try to figure out where Pennywise’s lair was, as well as other ways to get there. 

Eddie seems to be watching them, his form appearing in a dark corner. 

After lunch, they split up, checking entrances and how far they can make it through without finding a cave in. 

They cross out half a dozen ways until, finally, Richie finds the way through. 

He’s tempted to keep going by himself, but he knows that he’ll need his friends to get down there. It won’t work any other way.

*~.~*

The spelunking is left to tomorrow, and that night they have dinner at Jade of the Orient. It’s a good time, they drink and laugh, they catch each other up on their weeks. They mostly ignore Eddie standing in the corner.

Eventually, Bill, Ben and Bev break off into their own conversation, talking about Bill’s marriage with Audra. No doubt a preamble for Ben and Bev. Richie watches their closeness, and finds himself missing what could have been with Eddie.

Mike, beside him, turns around in his chair, and takes a proper look at Eddie, studying him.

“I saw him at the airport, after Stan’s funeral,” Mike tells him. “Both me and Bill.”  
  
“I figured. What do you think this is? Bev doesn’t think it’s a ghost, it’s the connection or whatever we have,” Richie downs the rest of his drink, and pours himself another.

“I think… that’s exactly what’s causing it. Our connection keeping us connected, showing us who’s the most vulnerable, who needs help. Stan got the help he needed to move on, but Eddie didn’t.” Mike turns away from Eddie, looking to Richie.

“I’ve been ignoring his cry for help then,” Richie said. “I’ve seen him every single day for two years, just watching him turn into this.” He sighs, and downs the whole of his drink.

Beverly, on the other side, rubs his hand, and then moves the bottle out of Richie’s reach. She goes back to the conversation between Ben and Bill; the action is not a big deal. 

“I think we needed to heal from It before we could even think about going back down there,” Mike says. “Now is the right time to do this.”

“I know you’re right, but it still doesn’t make me feel any less guilty,” Richie pours himself some water instead. 

There’s a few moments of silence between the two, then Mike changes the conversation: “I think I’m ready to settle down. I wanna meet someone, get married. I’ve moved around enough, at least for now.”

“Yeah? Got any idea of where you wanna do that?”

“I’ll see what happens in the next town,” Mike says.

They stay at Jade of the Orient for a little while longer, until they’re all full and a little drunk. Richie is the first to call it quits.

“Well, I think it’s time to hit the hay and get home to Mrs. Kaspbrak,” he says, putting his napkin now.

“It’s best to get an early start tomorrow,” Mike agreed.

So, the bill was paid, and it was agreed they would meet at the sewer entrance at 8AM. Mike heads back to the library, and the rest head back to the Inn.

Richie sleeps alone that night.

Eddie doesn’t make an appearance.

*~.~*

Several coffees and bagels later, everyone is outside the sewer entrance. It’s one of the run offs in the Barren’s. Richie remembers finding the girl’s shoe in the water here. Mike hands out torches, helmets and some climbing gear, and soon they’re wading through the dirty water.

It’s dark, but they’re able to find their way through easily enough with the map Mike brought. When they reach the top of Its lair, they find it mostly caved in, but there’s an easily discernible path through to the hatch.

They swim across to the ruins of the cart, now surrounded by mounds of earth, the cistern still visible up top. They push away the rubble covering the hatch, and try to see what they can down the tunnel.

“I’ll go first,” Bev says. “See what’s down there.”  
  
“No,” Richie tells her. “I’ll go. I think… I think I need to do this bit by myself.” 

The others look at him, and he knows their worried expressions. They don’t stop him though, and soon he’s climbing down the hole, torch pointing downwards into the dark. He climbs for what feels like forever, it gets colder with every step down, but soon he’s at the bottom, and shivering like mad.

There’s barely enough room for him, he realises. The walls are barely an inch away from his shoulders, and only a few more above his head. He looks around, trying to see which way to go, but he just can’t tell, the walls blending into each other.

Richie closes his eyes, and thinks of Eddie. “Help me find you,” he asks the empty air, and when he opens his eyes, he sees him.

Richie follows the vision, the top of the tunnel slowly sloping down until he has to crawl. Eddie slowly disappears as he gets closer, and he turns, seeing another Eddie leading him on.

He keeps crawling, the black, jagged walls making him claustrophobic, but he keeps going, slowly. Richie puts the flashlight in his mouth so he can use both hands to crawl. His knees start hurting, but he keeps going. His muscles start cramping from the odd usage, but he ignores it. 

He ignores everything he’s feeling except for the sound of his breath and the thought of reaching Eddie.

Eventually, the tunnel starts going up, and Richie struggles to keep his grip as he climbs, his hands almost rubbed raw. Eddie doesn’t appear to guide him to the top, but Richie knows he’s almost there. He reaches the crest, panting and out of breath, feeling like he’s going crazy, but Richie sees him.

Finally.

“Eddie,” he gasps, the heat from his tears fogging up his glasses. “Oh my god, Eddie.”

Eddie is in the same position that they left him in, sitting against the wall. His clothes are barely rags, his hair barely a wisp on the top of his head. He’s shrivelled like a prune, skin pale and looking rough to the touch. Nearly everything that would make him discernible as Eddie is gone, except for the cut in his cheek.

Richie cries for a while, and collapses from exhaustion. He takes his glasses off to wipe at his eyes, and thinks it would be awfully nice just to lay with Eddie forever. And despite the coffee in his system, he’s ready to pass out. He crawls the last few metres towards Eddie, and stretches out his hand. 

No invisible barrier this time. He touches Eddie’s hand, and he’s repulsed by the feeling. It’s drier than anything should be, and Richie’s last thought is that Eddie would never go so long without moisturising.

*~.~*

When Richie next opens his eyes, it’s still dark. He slowly realises that he’s not quite in the same place that he was before. The walls and floors are smoother, in fact, as Richie’s glasses are put back on his face, he thinks the walls look awfully like the inside of a turtle shell.

He blinks, and licks his lips, his whole mouth feeling dry.

“Richie.”

Richie’s startled, sitting upright and banging his head on the top of the shell. “Ow!” 

Next to him sits Eddie. Not in his mummy form. Flesh and blood and looking as human as one can get.

“Eddie?” He asks. Richie thinks he must be definitely hallucinating now.

Eddie is smiling at him, and he crawls over for a hug. Richie backs away, unsure of what to make of the situation.

“You’re-you’re dead! You’re a mummy! You’re a fucking mummy!” Richie shouts, backing further into the shell. It’s small, though, and he can’t get very far.

Eddie stays still, waiting for Richie to calm down. “I know. I know.”  
  
“Then I’m dead. I’ve died, and I’m stuck in this- is this a giant turtle?” Richie looks around, confused.

“Yeah. I don’t know why it’s here, or why I’m here. I’ve kind of just been waiting,” Eddie says.

Richie finally feels the adrenaline waning, and he gets back to his knees, crawling back towards Eddie.

“I’m sorry it took me so long, Eds.” 

“It’s okay- “ 

“I’m sorry I left you down here.”  
  
“It’s okay- “ 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for never saying anything, Eds.”

Eddie looks at him sadly. “I know, Rich- “

“I’m sorry for all the ‘your mom’ jokes.”

Eddie smiles. “It’s okay. I’m sorry, too.”

The adrenaline comes back. “I wanted to say it when we were kids, but I was scared. And I was scared to say it when we came back. I’m still scared.”  
  
Eddie grabs his hand. “It’s okay.”  
  
“I love you, Eds. I have since we were thirteen. And now… I don’t know if you ever wanted anything, but I wanted to do everything with you. I’m sad that I’ll never get the chance to know.”

Eddie puts both hands on Richie’s face. “I loved you too, Richie. And it was a great cosmic injustice that we’ll never get to have what we should have.”

They hug, hard. Richie never wants to let go.

“Thank you, for coming for me.” It sounds like goodbye, and its breaking Richie’s heart.

“I don’t wanna go. Why can’t I just stay here, with you?” He begs.

“Do you really want to stay in this turtle for the rest of time? Because I don’t,” Eddie whispers.

“But here, we can talk. We can touch. We can be together.”  
  
“It’s not life, though, is it?” Eddie points out. “I’m ready to go, Rich.”

Richie puts their foreheads together as Eddie wipes the tears from his cheeks. “It’s not fair.”

“I know. Maybe next time it will be.” 

Richie looks into Eddie’s eyes. They look like they used to, full of life and the love they never got to share. The temptation to stay is strong, and Richie holds on as tightly as he can to every part of Eddie he can reach.

But then he lets go. 

“Thank you,” Eddie says again, and then they kiss. Richie doesn’t break away, keeps going with it until he’s out of breath. He touches Eddie’s face, wanting the memory to last, and then-

*~.~*

He wakes up with a gasp, back in the tunnel. He coughs and splutters, his lungs burning like he’s forgotten to breathe. He shines the torch around, the turtle shell gone, and Eddie’s mummified body is still slumped against the wall.

Richie pulls the body back through the tunnel, back to the entrance, where the others have thrown down a rope. He ties Eddie into it, gives the rope a tug, and Eddie slowly begins to ascend.

Richie follows, reaching the hatch a few minutes later. Mike helps him out, while Bill, Ben and Bev have their moment with Eddie.

Richie carries him out. Mike says he knows someone in town who can cremate him. Beverly makes the suggestion that they each get a part, that they could all do something different with him.

Beverly wants to make a diamond out of him, put it in her engagement ring. Ben likes the idea, and says she can put his part in with hers. 

Bill suggests putting part of Eddie into his next book. Into the ink that’s printed on the paper. Or maybe use it in a painting. He hasn’t painted in a while.

Mike thinks he’d like to send Eddie into space, and let him drift among the stars.

Richie isn’t sure what he wants to do with his part of Eddie, but he thinks he comes up with something nice and simple by the time they get out of the sewer. 

He’ll keep him on the mantelpiece. And then, one day, whenever it happens, he’ll join him. 

He hopes Eddie likes the sound of that.


End file.
